NTSB cites Boeing, FAA failures for Alaska Air door plug incident
The National Transportation Safety Board highlighted numerous lapses in the 2024 Alaska Airlines door plug incident and has issued a number of safety recommendations.
“An accident like this only happens when there are multiple system failures,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said, blaming Boeing for safety issues.
The door panel blew out at about 16,000 feet on Alaska Flight 1282 which had just taken off from Portland on January 5, 2024.
Safety inspectors found four bolts on the door plug were missing,.
“The safety deficiencies that led to this accident should have been evident to Boeing and to the FAA and were therefore preventable,” Homendy said.
All 177 people on board survived; with eight suffering minor injuries.
The NTSB’s report cited Boeing’s failure on adequate training quality assurance oversight.
The FAA didn’t escape blame too.
“Contributing to the accident was the FAA’s ineffective compliance enforcement surveillance and audit planning activities, which failed to adequately identify and ensure that Boeing addressed the repetitive and systemic nonconformance issues,” the report added.
“The FAA has fundamentally changed how it oversees Boeing since the Alaska Airlines door-plug accident and we will continue this aggressive oversight to ensure Boeing fixes its systemic production-quality issues,” the FAA said.
A Boeing spokesperson said: “We will review the final report and recommendations as we continue to implement improvements.”
The NTSB issued new safety compliance recommendations to the FAA. These include updating its compliance enforcement surveillance system and records systems, and provide recurrent training to managers and inspectors.
Additionally, it should retain historical compliance enforcement and audit records for more than five years and set up an independent third-party panel to review Boeing’s safety culture.
Related News Stories: NTSB urges Boeing 757 inspections over faulty doors
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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